FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 153Nestlé was late to the plant-based party that turned the likes of
Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat into industry darlings. But now
the food and beverage titan is making up for lost time, aggressively
launching products across its vast portfolio that have the potential
to improve both consumers’ health and the planet’s: vegan KitKats;
pea-based alternatives to tuna and milk; Purina pet food made with
insects and fava beans. The Swiss multinational has about 10% of
its R&D employees working on plant-based goods, which are now
approaching $1 billion in revenue annually for the company. Nestlé’s
massive scale and distribution network is not only driving double-
digit sales growth of meat and dairy alternatives for the company,
but also helping mainstream the entire category worldwide.convert flies into
animal feed).
These deals are
key to ADM’s effort
to remake itself
into more than an
agri-giant proces-
sor of commodity
crops. ADM ex-
pects the $10 bil-
lion plant-protein
sector to triple in
size over the next
decade as con-
sumers become
more concerned
about the impact
of their diets on
the environment.
NestléThe ‘Plant-Based Party’ Scales Up
A global food and beverage empire throws its weight behind
meat and dairy alternatives.
VEVEY, SWITZERLANDNO28
COURTESY OF NESTLÉ